


Friends Forever?

by Clockworkcookie19



Category: The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Eventual Romance, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, M/M, Teen Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-10-24
Packaged: 2020-07-10 05:58:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19900948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clockworkcookie19/pseuds/Clockworkcookie19
Summary: Clary, Jace, Alec, Magnus, Simon and Isabelle have been best friends since birth. Jace is a player who always gets girls attention and clary is a girl who is just trying to find love, after breaking up with her emotionally abusive boyfriend things begin to change for the 6 friends, will they be friends forever?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoy this, this I my first fanfic thank you for taking the time to read 😘

“Clary I don’t understand why you’re overreacting about this?” Liam asks aggressively, Clary stands staring into his brown eyes in shock.

  
“What do you mean overreacting? You cancelled our plans to hang out with another girl” Clary replies, trying to hold the tears in. It's the end of the day they are stood by Clary’s locker.

  
“I’m allowed to do whatever I want, you can’t control me i can go on dates all i want, just because you’re my girlfriend doesn't mean you own me” He says spitefully as he walks away. Clary slams her locker and almost runs out of the building. She doesn’t realise where she's going until she arrives, its like clockworkShe automatically ends up at the same place every time.

***

Clary sits at her dad’s grave for what feels like hours before she decides to take out her phone and text her mum telling her not to worry and put her earphones in. Once the music fills her head she begins to let the tears fall. They’ve been together for two years she doesn’t know what shes done wrong, why she isn’t good enough, she thinks this until she is pulled out of her head by a tap on her shoulder. She jumps ripping her earphones out of her ears and turning to her supposed murderer with a face full of terror before she sees who is standing behind her. Jace stands behind her in all his golden glory, his golden eyes glimmering with amusement before he notices the tears streaming down Clary’s face.

  
“Clary what’s wrong?” Jace asks voice flooded with concern.

  
“Nothing, what are you doing here?” Clary replies shrugging off Jace’s concerns.

  
“Clary i’m not stupid, and i was walking to Java Jones to meet up with this girl and saw you sat here and thought i’d say hey” Clary considers his response for a few minutes before replying.

“Damn, well you’ve said hi so you can go to your date now” Clary responds trying to keep the sadness out of her voice.

  
“You’re not getting out of telling me whats bothering you that easily midge, I'll cancel my date” Jace says matter of factly. Clary is ready to protest but the use of his childhood nickname for her makes her not want to. They were born friends because their parents were, there are six of them Clary, Jace, Alec, Magnus, Simon and Isabelle. They’ve always told each other everything, but the problems between Clary and Liam have been happening for a year now and are just getting worse so why hasn’t she told them. Jace’s concerned face brings her out of her head once more and urges her to tell him, the pain is too much now.

  
“Liam, he’s whats wrong” Clary says in a whisper followed by another river of tears.

  
“What has the slimy toad done?” Jace responds trying to contain his anger, but failing to do so.

“For a year now he's just been an ass, not really spending time with me, not replying to my messages, flirting with other girls, and then yelling abuse at me calling me names acting as if it's all my fault, you name it he’s probably done it” Clary struggles through the tears. Jace sits there emotionless for a while before punching the ground.

  
“I knew it! I knew he was an asshole, Clary leave him please you have to, you can’t stay with someone who is cheating on you and emotionally abusing you” Jace says quickly holding Clary by the shoulders.

  
“Jace I can’t im scared of him.”

  
“Don’t be we’ll all be there for you, he tries to do anything he’s got me, Alec and magnus to go through”

  
“Just you three? What about Simon?”

  
“He’ll be there for emotional support just like Iz, he’s not exactly threatening so he’d ruin my menacing demeanour and make us look like a joke”

  
“How nice?” Clary laughs resting her head on Jace’s shoulder as he puts his arm over hers.

“You know me midge, always full of compliments”

  
“That's true, but you’re right, I'll do it after school tomorrow, make sure you’re by the oak tree with the others, i’ll brief them at lunch”

  
“Good, i'm so wise” Jace says but after that they sit in silence taking in the moment, Clary staring at the engraving on the stone that reads her father’s name and thinking about what he would want.

  
“Why didn’t you tell us?” Jace asks, breaking the silence.

  
“I don’t know, it started happening on a small scale before dad died but I didn't think much of it and then dad died and I held on because I didn't want to lose anyone else” Clary utters sheepishly feeling ashamed.

  
“There's no point holding onto a prick, plus you don’t need him you have us” Clary considers his response.

  
“You’re right, thank you for listening Jace it means a lot, i'm sorry for ruining your date”

  
“Don’t be you saved me, i didn’t want to go it was set up by my cousin Will, if anything you did me a favour. Plus you’ll always be more important than a petty date”

  
“Thank you, i’m going to go home now, have a goodnight i’ll see you tomorrow” Clary says as she stands up collecting her things.

  
“Night midge” Jace responds as she starts to walk away. Jace lingers there watching Clary’s figure fade into the darkness before going to Java Jones to get coffee.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, Clary rolls out of bed and gets dressed, dreading what she promised to do later that day. When she arrives at school she thanks her brother Jon for the lift and walks to her locker. As she piles her books into the locker along with her lunch she senses someone next to her, before turning around she chants “please don’t be liam”. When she turns she is met with the familiar golden eyes that she is so familiar with stare right into her emerald green ones.

“Morning midge, like what you did to the hair” Jace says a smirk plastered on his face.

“Morning Jace, and thanks i guess” She replies self consciously touching her hair,

  
“It was a compliment so stop doing that, are you prepared for today?”

  
“A compliment from you? Who drugged your coffee this morning? And not really but it has to be done I want the pain to stop, I’ve cried myself to sleep for a year now”

  
“I know right, and thats good, and we’ll all be there for you” Jace says smiling a genuine smile. The bell rings a few minutes later making Clary and Jace part ways.

***

  
At lunch Clary goes into their designated lunch room and is greeted by a shrieking Isabelle.

  
“Oh My God, Clarrrrrrryyyyy, it’s been so long” She said pulling Clary into a bone crushing hug.

“Iz you saw me yesterday” Clary chokes out.

  
“Izzy dear let clary go” Simon says whilst trying to pry Isabelle off of Clary. When he finally gets her off they all sit down in their designated seats, they all look expectantly at Clary as she unwraps her tuna sandwich.

  
“Guys, Why are you acting weird?” Clary asks confusion evident in her voice.

  
“Biscuit, we’re all waiting for you tell us the gossip Jace said you had to tell us” Magnus explains as Jace chokes on his apple.

  
“Magnus! How dare you out me?”

  
“What are you gonna do Herondale?” Magnus replies checking his nails.  
“Guys, stop let Clary explain in her own time” Alec announces. Clary sits there and eats her sandwich whilst her friends watch her every move. After twenty minutes she explains everything.

  
“That scoundrel. How dare he?” Simon bursts out in anger.

  
“Simon, scoundrel isn’t the word to use. Let me give you a few, prick, ass, dick. Do you want anymore?” Jace says sarcastically.

  
“If I was Han Solo i’d get chewbacca on him straight away” Simon mutters.

  
“Thanks Si” Clary says before finishing the rest of her lunch. Jace briefs them all on their plan before the bell rings and they all part ways.

***

Clary and Magnus are walking their science lesson together in science which is unusual, usually Magnus talks Clary’s ear off.

  
“Biscuit, don’t you think that Jace has been acting nice today ?” Magnus asks as they enter the class room.

  
“Yeah, he complimented my hair today and I didn't know what to say”

  
“That's very not Jace, i think i know what's his deal is if ya know what I mean” Magnus says winking at Clary.

  
“He probably just found another girl to keep him occupied” Clary says with bitterness in her tone.

  
“You could say that” Magnus mumbles before the teacher walks in, they both turn to face the board at the front of the classroom.

***

  
It’s the end of the day, Clary is getting the things she needs from her locker when right on cue  
Liam shows up beside her.

  
“You didn’t respond to my messages last night, you left me on read, why are you being such a bitch” He says with enough anger in his voice that convinces Clary he might actually explode.

“Not nice is it” Clary responds as she closes her locker and begins to walk out sending a message to Jace that she's coming. As she gets to the steps outside she starts to think that he didn’t follow but then she feels a harsh pull on her shoulder forcing her to look at him.

  
“How fucking dare you disrespect me like that.” Liam spits.

  
“Disrespect you, you want to talk about disrespecting people mister i’ll date other people whilst being with you” Clary replies with anger before heading towards the tree.

  
“I’m allowed, you’re ugly, annoying why would i want to just put up with you” this stuns Clary she stands there for a couple of minutes trying to hold back the tears and failing.

“Well you don’t have to anymore, im done with being treated like shit, om breaking up with you” Clary says through her tears.

  
“Excuse me, you can’t do that you belong to me.” he says bewildered, Clary is crying to the point where she can’t speak, when she tries nothing but choked sobs come out. She feels a hand touch her shoulder, Jace she thinks and at that moment he steps from behind her and blocks her from Liam’s murderous gaze.

  
“You do not own her Liam, you don’t deserve her, you’re an ass and need to leave, she broke up with you let her be, you’ve done nothing but ruin her mental health” Jace spits with anger.

“Whos gonna protect her, you?” Liam replies in a mocking tone.

  
“Yes, I will for as long as I need to but i'm not alone” Jace says as Izzy, Magnus, Alec and Simon come to stand by him, forming a protective circle around Clary.

  
“You win this time but you can’t shield her forever” Liam says as he walks away laughing. Jace immediately turns around and pulls Clary into a hug.

  
“You alright midge?” he asks with so much concern in his voice it shocks Clary.

  
“Yeah thank you for helping guys” she responds tears still falling,

  
“It”s all good Biscuit, how about a celebration at Takis?” Magnus asks getting a lot of cheers. They all head down to takis Jace still holding onto Clary protectively.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you like, I’ll try and get the next one done soon


	3. Chapter 3

The group have a fun meal at Takis talking about anything and everything, Jace notices a smile arise on Clary’s lips for the first time in a while and makes a mental note to pride himself on that one. When they leave to head home Jace, Clary and Magnus drive in his car singing songs from the Backstreet Boys and Queen. When they pull away from Clary’s driveway Magnus turns to Jace and says

“you have a glow in your aura today” Jace keeps his eyes on the road and replies

“what are you on about Magnus?”

“C’mon Jace i’m not stupid i know how you feel about Clary”

“A friend, one of my best friends, a midget and a good artist” Jace replies matter of factly,

“Who are you trying to convince with that, we both know you’ve had the biggest crush on Clary since we were 10”

“No i haven’t-” Jace starts before being cut off by Magnus

“You can’t fool me Jace you know this” Jace sits there in silence for a while staring at the road, hands gripped hard on the steering wheel.

“How’d you figure it out? Has anyone else?”

“The teasing, the playful name calling and the constant need to protect her more than anyone else, you also go on a lot of dates when she's in a relationship almost as if you’re trying to distract yourself and no, no one else knows they're not as observant of people's feelings than me”

“good , it should stay that way”

“why , shes single now, this could be your chance to finally get the girl of your dreams”

“We’re friends, if we date and things go wrong it could ruin that”

“I’m not buying that one bit Jace, you always give things a shot before dismissing them unless you’re scared of it, tell me why are you scared?” Magnus says suspiciously, eyes locked on Jace’s side profile. Jace takes a deep breath and rubs his face with one hand before replying.

“I’m not good enough for someone as amazing as Clary, she deserves the world and I can’t give her that, every girl i’ve ever been with i accidentally hurt, people see me as a player because I go on all these dates but it's because I don’t like staying with one girl because I know that eventually I'll hurt them and I couldn't forgive myself if I was the person to make Clary feel that way.” Magnus Studies Jace in silence as they pull into his driveway and gets ready to leave. Before closing the door he turns to Jace and says

“Maybe you only hurt those girls because you can’t give them your heart because it already belongs with Clary” he slams the door leaving Jace alone. Jace sits and thinks about what Magnus said for what feels like hours before pulling out of the driveway and continuing down the road.

***

When Jace enters his house he notices a note on the table by the front door. He picks it up his face contorting in anger. It was from his parents and real

‘Gone away on business for a week we will see you next sunday love you’. Jace rips the note up and puts it in the bin before heading to the kitchen and making himself dinner. Jace normally didn’t mind his parents going away on business but over the past two months, they've only spent two whole weeks at home and most of that they spent with the other guys parents rather than him. It makes him feel like a disappointment, they'd do anything to not spend time with him. After eating his meal and washing up the mess he goes to his room and slams the door. He lies on his bed for a while before finally getting up and walking over to the piano, he runs his fingers over the keys before sitting on the stool and playing. Jace sat there playing for hours before he was interrupted by a message alert on his phone, begrudgingly he walks over to the other side of his room where his phone was placed on his bed and began to read the messages he had been left. There was multiple from the group chat they had, one of them was from Clary thanking him for helping and then one was a winky face emoji from Magnus. Jace really hated how Magnus could sense his feelings no matter how hard he tried to hide them. He replies to Clary first texting a simple

‘anytime Midge’ before sending an eye roll emoji to magnus and then finally reads the group chat, they’re all wondering where to hang out tomorrow, simon suggested a nerd festival which led Jace to suggest

‘well my parents are away on business again this week we can hang out at mine order takeaway and buy some snacks and have a movie/ game night’ in which each of them reply

‘sounds good’ Jace loved his friends as he could count on them to be there when his parents weren’t. He sends

‘great see ya guys at 3pm :)’ before turning his phone on silent and lying down in his bed thinking about what Magnus has said. Since he had feelings for Clary he was never able to get rid of them no matter how many girls he got with since then and he never felt towards them the way he felt about Clary. Maybe Magnus was right but even if he tried to express his feelings he knew Clary would never feel the same.

***

Clary couldn’t stop thinking about Jace and how weird he was acting today. A few minutes later she was pulled out of her reverie by the buzzing of her phone, she picked it up and saw who it was and answered bringing the phone to her ear and saying

“Hey Iz, what do you want?”

“Hey i just wanted to know how you were doing, breakups aren't the best thing in the world.”

“I’m doing fine actually, leaving him was for the best”

“So have they come back yet or do you think they’re really gone”

“What are you on about Iz” Clary asked confused

“Your feelings for Jace are they gone or did they come back”

“Iz they never really left, for the first year of being with Liam they weren’t there but when things started to go down hill they started coming back slowly, which ive only just realised.”

“Eekkkkk that's great and I know it won’t happen anytime soon because you still need to get over Liam but this could be your chance to be with Jace”

“Iz he doesn’t like me that way and even though he was a dick and i still had those feelings for Jace in the background i still loved Liam and I need to get over it before even talking about this okay so just leave it”

“Alright i'll leave it for now, goodnight Clary”

“Night Iz” Clary responds before hanging up the phone and lying down in bed thinking about what Izzy said.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, it’s taken a while because I’ve been going t tough personal problems but I should have more frequent uploads now :)


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

2 months later

Clary was worried, she had been getting threatening messages from Liam but didn’t want to worry anyone else. They helped her out of the relationship, they’ve already done enough to help. She had been in a bad mental space ever since they started a month ago, the anxiety and depression came back into full force after only being background noise for what seemed like a second. The pain was just too much and to make it worse Jace hadn’t been around that much. She wanted to know what has been making him so distant as well as faking her own happiness. As she turned the corner and entered the school’s campus, she used all her energy to put on a happy face. She slowly made her way to the groups meeting spot, one of the classrooms with nice teachers that let them borrow it at break and lunch, and is met by loud voices and laughter.   
Izzy is the first to notice her lurking at the door and beckons her over. 

“Hey Claryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, I was wondering if you would like to stay over tonight for a girly night, we haven’t done one in so longgggg pleaseeeeee” Iz said in a pleading tone whilst fluttering her eyelashes, she knows this is the only way to make Clary not be able to say no to her so Clary just nods and smiles, a girly day is what she needs right now there's so much going on in her head.

Clary had just sat down when Jace stumbled into the classroom and collapses into the nearest chair, he looked like he hadn’t slept in days his golden eyes were now dull and the bags under them looked like voids. The group just stared at him wondering what was wrong with him. Magnus was the one who decided to break the silence and say

“Hey, Jace nice of you to join us are you okay?”

“Yeah, never been better” Jace replied in a mock happy tone, Alec looked like he wanted to say something before being shut off by Jace’s death glare. 

Clary wondered what was wrong with him, he's been acting weird for a while now and she had a feeling Alec knew why and she was going to find out. When the bell rang she grabbed Alec’s arm and stopped him from leaving, once everyone had left she asked 

“So what's really up with Jace?” 

“ I have no idea what you’re on about” Alec replied 

“Come on we’re not stupid we all know something’s wrong, just tell us so we can help him”

“He doesn’t want anyone else knowing but go to his house today on your way to Izzy’s and i'm sure you’ll figure it out”

“I will, thank you” she replied whilst walking out the room 

“Hey clary, make him so of those brownies, I think he’ll need them this weekend” 

“Yes sir” she said as she mock saluted him before disappearing into the crowd.

***  
It was 3pm and Clary was on her way to Jace’s, they only had a half day since its end of term, she was supposed to be at Izzy’s at 6pm so that gave her 3 hours to figure out what was wrong with Jace. The house loomed over her she took a deep breath before ringing the doorbell. Jace opened the door looking completely broken, he was shirtless with loose fitting trousers on, his hair was matted and tangled, the bags under his eyes had doubled in size. 

“Clary what are you doing here” he said while urgently grabbing a jacket and throwing it on. 

“I came to see if you were okay, you’ve been acting distant lately can I come in?”

“Uhh sure, sorry for the mess”

“It’s okay, i made you your favourite brownies” she said while passing him the tray

“Thanks midge, i'll just put them in the kitchen make yourself comfortable,” he said while walking into another room. Clary sat down on the sofa that hadn’t been turned into a bed. Jace came in a few minutes later and collapsed onto the messy sofa. 

“So your parents are away on business again?”

“Yup” his reply was blunt enough to realise that, that was the problem she didn’t want to push him anymore since if he wanted to talk he would, she made a mental note to ask Alec later.

“Enough about my life, how's yours? has the dick left you alone?”

“Not exactly” Clary mumbled so quietly she hoped that Jace didn’t hear 

“What has he done?” dammit ,Clary thought, Jace had now moved next to her on the clean sofa 

“It's only a couple of messages nothing extreme” she replied shrugging off his concern

“Show me then” Clary pulled out her phone and loaded the messages passing her phone to Jace. The room was silent whilst he read through the months worth of threatening messages, when he was finished reading he put the phone down and walked over to the other side of the room and punched the wall. 

“Not bad? Clary are you serious?” he finally said breaking the silence

“On his standards”

“What does that even mean?”

“He’s done worse” 

“I’m gonna kill him Midge” the anger was radiating off of him 

“Jace don’t do anything, sort out your own problems, i’m fine, I just ignore them and besides why should you help when you won’t let me help you”

“Clary this is different-”

“How is it?” She said cutting him off 

“You’re in danger, he’s a loose cannon he’d isn’t afraid to physically hurt you”

“Jace you’re in danger of hurting yourself, you look like you haven’t slept in days, I saw you hide your arms so i'm guessing you’ve already started. I care about you, I want to help you and I'm refusing your help until I can help you too, now i’m gonna go otherwise ill be late for girly night with Iz and you know how she gets, think about what I said and when you’re ready to open up you know where i’ll be” she said as she left the house and made her way round the corner and knocked on Izzy’s door.

**Author's Note:**

> Next chapter coming soon


End file.
